Christian Little is deservedly honored for his great month:
Game 1: Shane McClanahan was masterful tonight and Keibert Ruiz supplied the offense as the Rays avoided their first 3-game losing streak of the season with a 6-1 win in Cleveland. Mac won his third straight start after starting the year late and 0-3, and this was the best one yet as he went 7 3 1 1 2 8. Evan Godwin had a scoreless 8th and Jordan Diaz a clean 9th. Ruiz had the game's big hit, a 2-run HR (#5) in the 2nd off Luis Castillo to make it 2-0 Rays, and he added an RBI single in the 6th. Nate Clark had a 3rd inning RBI single and Ricky Widmar homered with a man on in the 9th for 1st of the year in his 4th game and added 2 steals to boot. Julio Cedillo was 1-3 off Mac in his first game against his old team. Baltimore won yet again so the lead stays at 6 1/2.
Game 2: In what was hands-down their ugliest win of the season, the Rays overcame 19 Cleveland hits and an 8-6 deficit in the 8th to pull out a 9-8 victory. For a while it looked like Julio Cedillo would be the hero today, tormenting his former team with 3 hits and 3 RBI, including 2 of the infield variety which scored runs and kept innings alive. Mack Anglin was handed a 5-1 lead in the 2nd, but by the bottom of the 4th he had completely squandered it and let Cleveland take the lead, going a terrible 3 11 6 6 1 3. Mike Mooney somehow went 2 1/3 scoreless despite allowing 2 hits and 4 walks, but Jordan Diaz wasn't so lucky, letting Cleveland score twice on 4 hits in the bottom of the 7th after the Rays came back to tie in the top of the inning. But Bobby Witt Jr had an RBI double in the 8th to make it 8-7 Cleveland, and in the 9th Ricky Widmar led off being hit by a Jackson Baumeister pitch, stole second, was singled to 3rd by Nate Clark and scored on a wild pitch to tie it. Jasson Dominguez then singled in Clark with the game-winner, and Jose Alvarado pitched around a leadoff single to pick up save #4 while Evan Godwin notched his 1st win of the year with a scoreless 8th. They had built the 5-1 lead earlier in part on Keibert Ruiz's 2-run HR (#6), his second in as many days, and RBI knocks from Dane Ayers and Judson Fabian. Baltimore never seems to lose these days, so the lead is still 6 1/2.
June 3: Trade Alert!
A pretty big trade as prospects go. Bienick was ranked highly on the prospects list, but has yet to see his potential realized. He has 60 stuff as a starter, 70-75 stuff as a reliever, but his bugaboo is control and in two seasons pitching for Durham (and a brief stint with the big club last year) he has been a bit underwhelming. Some of it is a really high BABIP but his 40/45 control is the other part of it. Still, a great arm and along with Epperly, one of our supplemental 1st round picks who's kind of the antithesis of Bienick in that his calling card is movement and control and is only projected for 45 stuff, you have to give something to get something. And what we got is a potential elite hitter in de Jesus. He's ranked as the #19 prospect in baseball, and here's what he could do right now if we plopped him in the MLB lineup:
He can rake, and he also has 70 base-stealing ability. He's a 55 LF and he's a possible Jud Fabian replacement as Fabian is getting expensive. For now he'll help Durham, which needs it as they're hovering around .500 still. Abrego is an interesting young CF who can play the position well and could end up hitting.
Game 3: It was an all-hands-on-deck kind of day as Alec Sachais had to leave after the 1st inning with a moderate elbow strain (a 2-week injury which will see him go on the IL) but the Rays used their depth to pull out a 3-2 come-from-behind win over Cleveland to sweep the series (as well as the season series). After Sachais left, Jack Leiter came on in the 2nd and with one out gave up a homer to Tyreque Reed, then allowed another run in the 4th to put Cleveland up 2-1 after Spencer Torkelson hit his 4th HR of the year for the Rays in the top of the 3rd. Leiter left after those 3 innings and gave way to Andy Aparicio who was brilliant once again in long relief going 3 0 0 0 1 4. This kept the game close while the Rays came back to equalize in the 7th on a Tork RBI single. Connor Kirkley then singled but Julio Cedillo threw Tork out at the plate to keep it tied. Daniel Espino came on in the 8th and got Cleveland out, setting us up for the 9th when another player off the bench came through. In that 7th inning Joe Barker left with knee soreness so Dane Ayers had to come in, and he led off the 9th with an infield single, stole second, went to third on the bad throw and scored on Isaac DeLeon's single. With several in the bullpen tired JDLC stayed put in the pen in case we had extras so Espino remained in the game and got a 1-2-3 9th to save his own win, his 5th of the season. And Baltimore finally lost so the lead expands to 7 1/2.
Team record: 39-16. Next up: An off-day which features the 2029 Amateur Draft, then the upper midwestern road trip continues in Detroit.